what is a good brand of heads, in the $900-1500 range?

 

WCCH Stage 1.

 

WCCH has some Edelbrocks that are specifically made for the 5.3's... they may be considered his "stage 1" heads but thats how I know them LOL.... either way, he's got those heads covered.

 

was the stage 1 head closer to 900 or 1500 dollars and what did they do to them and any flow numbers on your heads tdrumm. thanks

 

Once I returned my stock heads and got the core charge refunded, my heads cost about $700. I don't remember the exact amount off the top of my head.
These were bare heads with new valve guides and valves. I swapped over my valve seals and Crane dual valvesprings. They also offer fully assembled heads which cost more. Now I need a bigger cam to really get the fullbenefit of the heads.

Here is the flow data for my heads using a 3.78 bore:
lift .100 .200 .300 .400 .500 .550 .600 .650
int 65.6 140.9 187.0 226.7 256.6 260.5 252.1 254.5
ex 57.0 109.6 151.3 175.1 198.5 206.0 211.4 213.6

For comparision here is some stock flow data from Smokemup.com. Not sure which bore size they used.
Lift 0.100 0.200 0.300 0.400 0.500 0.550 0.600
Intake 63 128 179 210 218 221 226
Exhaust 54 93 121 145 163 168 174

The WCCH/Edelbrock 5.3 heads are the ultimate if you want to take a 5.3 to the max, but they are over the $1500 constraint in the original post. These wern't released when I ordered mine. Part of me wishes I held out for them. Not because I'm not satisfied with my heads, but because when I add the new cam and intake manifold, I'll always wonder how much more I could have gotten with the better flowing heads.

Here is the flow data on the WCCH/Edelbrock heads using a 3.78 bore.
Lift .100 .200 .300 .400 .500 .600 .625
int 65.0 131.8 193.4 235.4 267.4 284.9 286.9
exh 63.0 115.5 164.3 192.1 209.5 217.5 220.0

*EDIT - The forum took out all my spacing which makes the data harder to read*

 

Dart 205